Scene Stealers 2020

The 10 best scene-stealers of 2020

by Jake Kleinman
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

At Inverse, we put our heads together and came up with a list of the best scene-stealing characters in streaming this year

Then we asked our readers to vote on their favorites. Here are the top 10 TV and movie characters of 2020 who deserve their own spinoffs in 2021.

10. Mycroft Holmes

It’s hard to understate the brilliance of Sam Claflin as Mycroft in Enola Holmes. As the unofficial antagonist of the film, Claflin offered fans perhaps the most detestable version yet of this perennially unhappy member of the Holmes clan.

Netflix
9. Pat Dugan

Luke Wilson plays Pat in Stargirl. He's the former sidekick to Starman who's downed his crime-fighting tools to start a quiet life in Nebraska. He's a rock for his stepdaughter — Stargirl — who's about to embark on a hero's journey of her own.

The CW
8. Tutar Sagdiyev

Nothing encapsulates the chaos of 2020 as well the Borat sequel that materialized out of nowhere and introduced us to Maria Bakalova. This unknown Bulgarian actress proved to be Sacha Baron Cohen’s secret weapon in the film that no one expected, but everyone secretly needed.

Amazon Prime
7. Raffi Musiker

Throughout the 50+ year history of Star Trek, we’re used to thinking of the Federation as the unequivocal good guys of the galaxy. It’s through the eyes of Raffi (Michelle Hurd in Picard), that we begin to see the degradation of a powerful institution grown far too pleased with itself.

CBS All Access
6. Gray Tal

Even since Star Trek premiered in 1966, it's been a pioneering cultural force for diversity and inclusion. The third season of Discovery introduced the franchise’s first non-binary and transgender characters, the latter of whom is Ian Alexander’s otherworldly, cello-playing sweetheart.

CBS All Access
5. Space Beth

Sarah Chalke already stars in Rick and Morty as Beth Smith, an alcoholic mother struggling to keep her family together despite a string of inconceivable sci-fi adventures. In Season 4, the series confirmed a popular fan theory by revealing Space Beth, a badass clone (or was regular Beth the clone?) who's everything her Earth-bound doppelganger is afraid to be. Read our interview with Sarah Chalke.

Adult Swim
4. Alma Wheatley

Anya Taylor‑Joy stars in Queen's Gambit as chess savant Beth Harmon, but the show’s unsung hero is Alma Wheatley, her drug-addicted adoptive mother, played with tragic humor by Marielle Heller.

Netflix
3. Stormfront

How did The Boys top its shocking first season? By adding a Nazi to its superhero squad. Aya Cash plays Stormfront, a racist “supe” who stirs up anti-immigrant sentiment with political speeches and Facebook memes.

Amazon Prime
2. Frog Lady

The Mandalorian is all about taking background characters and elevating them into starring roles, and in Season 2, Disney+ introduced us to the greatest seat-filler in Star Wars history, an amphibian alien voiced by Dee Bradley Baker with a physical performance from Misty Rosas.

Disney+
1. Lila Pitts

The Umbrella Academy was already a great time in Season 1, but the show got even better in Season 2 thanks to a new setting (Texas in the ‘60s) and the addition of Ritu Ary as Lila Pitts, a romantic interest red herring, with a climactic twist we never saw coming.

Netflix